Sarracenia blood moon revisited and remixed!
Apr 26, 2019 13:55:11 GMT -5
hcarlton, rudeko, and 2 more like this
Post by meizzwang on Apr 26, 2019 13:55:11 GMT -5
For those of you who aren't familiar with this unofficial cultivar, Sarracenia blood moon is a cross between flava rubricorpora and leucophylla wilkerson's red rocket. The rubricorpora clone used is unknown, presumably a liberty Co, FL genotype. Given that multiple different seedlings from this cross were distributed, we can infer that blood moon is a "grex cultivar," meaning any rubricorpora x wilkerson's red rocket that "looks decent" can be called blood moon.
Challenge with this is, even in the same cross, not all seedlings look exactly alike. Here's arguably the most coveted of the blood moon clones, this is grown and photographed by mbfmark of the Sarracenia forum:
Now here's the blood moon clone grown and photographed by my homie Bristol:
To the discerning grower, both plants are exceptional, but in my opinion, MBFMark's plant is far superior in shape and overall look, as it resembles wilkerson's red rocket shape-wise yet has the rubricorpora colors! When you think of acquiring blood moon, my gut says most growers are probably going to hope to get MBFMARK's clone.
This is exactly the reason why grex cultivars can cause serious trouble: even though the two plants are similar and are siblings from the same cross, they're not equal. Giving clonal names to each individual gets rid of this potential issue. Another solution is to call them by their cross name instead of giving the entire cross a cultivar name. That way, the person acquiring the plant knows it's a variable seedling that fits certain criteria rather than an exact plant that they were eyeball effing (pardon my french). BTW, that's not necessarily a bad thing: if you're like Mike Wang and you grow out hundreds of seedlings that are selected down to a few dozen, you can expect every last one of those individuals to be nice!
Another question one may have is what clone of rubricorpora did the original breeder use to create blood moon? You might wonder, does it even make a difference? Turns out yes, it does!
Ever since Bristol enlightened me of the different blood moon clones in circulation, I've been on a mission to see if I can make a nice plant using a similar cross. I crossed wilkerson's red rocket with flava var. rubricorpora 'best clone' Liberty Co, FL. There's a lot of variability in the offspring, and I started off with close to 1000 seedlings. Recently, I got them down to about 60 or 70 plants, but more culling is necessary to get down to only the best.
It's still a bit early to tell, but here's one I have my eye on, looks different from the two clones above:
Lots of variability in the seed batch, here's another seedling that has nice color, but check out the various colors of it siblings:
it's still too early to tell if any of these will make the cut, but I thought this discussion is important to bring up. to be continued....
Challenge with this is, even in the same cross, not all seedlings look exactly alike. Here's arguably the most coveted of the blood moon clones, this is grown and photographed by mbfmark of the Sarracenia forum:
Now here's the blood moon clone grown and photographed by my homie Bristol:
To the discerning grower, both plants are exceptional, but in my opinion, MBFMark's plant is far superior in shape and overall look, as it resembles wilkerson's red rocket shape-wise yet has the rubricorpora colors! When you think of acquiring blood moon, my gut says most growers are probably going to hope to get MBFMARK's clone.
This is exactly the reason why grex cultivars can cause serious trouble: even though the two plants are similar and are siblings from the same cross, they're not equal. Giving clonal names to each individual gets rid of this potential issue. Another solution is to call them by their cross name instead of giving the entire cross a cultivar name. That way, the person acquiring the plant knows it's a variable seedling that fits certain criteria rather than an exact plant that they were eyeball effing (pardon my french). BTW, that's not necessarily a bad thing: if you're like Mike Wang and you grow out hundreds of seedlings that are selected down to a few dozen, you can expect every last one of those individuals to be nice!
Another question one may have is what clone of rubricorpora did the original breeder use to create blood moon? You might wonder, does it even make a difference? Turns out yes, it does!
Ever since Bristol enlightened me of the different blood moon clones in circulation, I've been on a mission to see if I can make a nice plant using a similar cross. I crossed wilkerson's red rocket with flava var. rubricorpora 'best clone' Liberty Co, FL. There's a lot of variability in the offspring, and I started off with close to 1000 seedlings. Recently, I got them down to about 60 or 70 plants, but more culling is necessary to get down to only the best.
It's still a bit early to tell, but here's one I have my eye on, looks different from the two clones above:
Lots of variability in the seed batch, here's another seedling that has nice color, but check out the various colors of it siblings:
it's still too early to tell if any of these will make the cut, but I thought this discussion is important to bring up. to be continued....